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Friday, November 20, 2015

A New Start In The Studio

November 20, 2015
Finished the last page of my latest sketchbook this morning. This is the sketchbook I carried to Europe in September on the van Gogh tour. Each sketchbook has 100 pages, and they typically last about two-and-a-half months. The spiral binding got smooshed, probably from an overhead bin on an airplane, but it is full of crazy ear sketches almost all the way through. I usually give it a little extra juice on the last page. Funny how that is. If I worked this hard every day, on every page, maybe I'd be a better artist. As it took shape, starting in bottom-right corner, I decided to draw all the things I dig.

Daily Whip Outs: "Everything I love"

My studio, which has been a pit for a very long time, is being whipped into shape by Curator Cal. It currently looks like a dad-burned BBB museum. Check out the foyer.

The New and Reclaimed BBB Foyer

This latest sketchbook joins a long and growing gaggle of sketchbooks stretching back a couple decades now. Funny what you can accomplish if you just commit to doing it.

The BBB Sketchbook Morgue

Cal has also commandeered my computer area and replaced the mess I had there with black and white images, including photos of several big influences in my life: Charlie Waters and Paul Revere, Al and Bobbie (my parents) and Bob and Louise Guess (my grandparents). That's Doc Holliday, upper right.

BBB studio computer area

Of course, it's hard to keep the entire area looking so pristine because when I work it's chaotic and I have numerous projects going at the same time and my work area tends to look like this:

One of three art desks, my main one. Yes, that is today's sketches, bottom left, which I added some washes to from the pallette at right.

Of course, I'd like to say I am turning over a new leaf and that I will stay on top of the mess and my studio will stay so classy, but well. you know.

"If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel you are looking the wrong way."
—Old Vaquero Saying

About Me

Bob Boze Bell's work has appeared in Arizona Highways, Playboy, National Lampoon, the Arizona Republic and True West magazine.
For ten years (2002-20012) he did a video version of True West Moments which ran on the Westerns Channel.
BBB can currently be seen on the series "Gunslingers" which runs on the American Heroes Channel.
Triple B is also the President and executive editor of True West magazine, positions he has held since 1999.
He has written a dozen books on Old West characters like Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok and a three-part series (so far) on Classic Gunfights which appear in True West. These popular, heavily illustrated books have sold over 90,000 copies, so far.
In 2014 he published a visual memoir of growing up on Route 66 called "The 66 Kid," and he is currently working on a bio of Geronimo.
As for retirement, BBB says, "Work is only work if you'd rather be someplace else. And I'm exactly where I want to be."